In 1951, when polyester came on the scene, cotton manufacturers and farmers knew they had to hustle to come with a way to keep cotton wrinkle free, lest polyester take over the world. An American chemist, by the name of Ruth Benerito discovered the chemical cocktail that was first applied to cotton to create the wrinkle resistant cotton we know and love today.

Born in 1916 in New Orleans, to parents with a strong belief in education and women’s liberation, Ruth was encouraged  to pursue  degrees in science and mathematics. She graduated from University of Chicago with a PhD in Chemistry in 1948 and went on to teach at the university level. Fed up with wage discrimination, she left academia in 1951 to become a researcher for the USDA.

Cotton had been on a steady decline since the 1930’s when the first synthetic fibers had been introduced. While these new fabrics, like polyester, could be washed and worn, cotton still needed to be starched and pressed, suddenly making it too high maintenance. Cotton needed a big boost to remain a contender in the textile market. Ruth and her team of scientists discovered by attaching organic chemicals to cotton fibers the cotton could become wrinkle resistant and further down the line, stain and flame resistant, too. This invention is said to have saved the cotton industry (and lots of ironing.) Ruth held over 55 patents and retired from the USDA in 1986. She continued teaching until 1997 and died at the age of 97 in 2013.

Ruth was quick to downplay her contributions to science and include the many people in her life who contributed to her success.

“I believe that whatever success that I have attained is the result of many efforts of many [people]. My very personal success was built from the help and sacrifices of members of my family, and professional accomplishments resulted from the efforts of early teachers and the cooperativeness of colleagues too many to enumerate.”

Ruth Benerito

Located in a non-descript industrial building in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn lies Greenfield Custom Clothiers, the last custom suit maker of its kind in the United States. On the second floor of the three-story building workers craft hand-tailored menswear, piece by piece, for an impressive client list that includes, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and hit television shows and films like The Black List, Gotham and The Great Gatsby.

Holocaust survivor, Martin Greenfield came to the United States in 1947, after being the only member of his family to survive the horrors of a World War II concentration camp. He promptly took a job as a floor boy carrying unfinished garments from station to station for $35 a week at suit manufacturer GGG Clothing, located where Martin Greenfield Clothiers stands today.

Over the next thirty years, Greenfield mastered all 108 operations necessary to custom make men’s suits, moving up from supervisor to vice president at GGG. In 1977, Martin bought the company for $100,000 and renamed it Greenfield Clothiers.

If you want to read more about Martin Greenfields inspiring story, check out his book The Measure of a Man and this Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zrd7s-G8A4

I attended the New York book launch for After Andy, a new memoir by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, at NeueHouse Madison Square on Tuesday night.

Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, Londons “It Girl” of the 1980’s, worked at Warhol Studios at the time of the artists death in 1987. Her memoir recounts her experiences from her childhood in England to her career as a fashion journalist for Warhol’s Interview Magazine, WWD and W Magazine to the European Editor for Harpers Bazaar.

The book features art and fashion heavyweights Diane von Furstenberg, Larry Gagosian, Peter Brant and Christian Louboutin, who discuss how Warhols influence on art, society and fashion continue to impact stylemakers today.   Warhol’s famous quote, “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes,” seems prophetic in todays social media culture.

Under the giant gold button at 143 East 62nd Street in New York City,  you’ll find Tender Buttons, the only buttons only shop of its kind in America. https://www.yelp.com/biz/tender-buttons-new-york

The shop, part button museum part button emporium, is wonderful place to spend some time, get inspired and maybe buy a button or two. Housed in a charming miniature town house with boxes of buttons lining the walls from floor to ceiling, arranged by color ranging in every kind of button from a classic four hole horn button ($2.75) to hand carved ivory eagle heads ($7.50) to antique collectors items ranging in the thousands of dollars.

Founded in 1964, when Diana Epstein, a New York book editor at the time, went to her favorite button shop on East 77^th street in search of some good buttons, to find the owner had died and the shop had closed. She tracked down the heirs and bought the entire button collection (hundreds of thousands of buttons) for $5000. Shortly after Diana teamed up with Millicent Safro, an antiques dealer who offered to help her organize the buttons and before they knew it the two established Tender Buttons.

Tender Buttons moved from the East 77th Street location to the townhouse in 1968, with the two proprietors living above the shop until Diana’s death in 1998.  Millicent still lives there, rumored to be surrounded by millions of buttons.

backissues.com is an excellent site to find and buy magazines from the past, filled to the brim with inspiration.  I’ve used this resource countless times when researching different periods.  backissues.com carries everything from entertainment and fashion magazines to cars and trucks to history and politics dating as far back as the 1930’s.